Monday, August 23, 2004

I never dream of trains

I often dream of trains when I'm alone
I ride on them into another zone
I dream of them constantly
Heading for paradise
Or Basingstoke
Or ReadingI Often Dream of Trains - Robyn Hitchcock

I rode the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) from 1979 until 1996. That comes out to 17 years, I believe. On a good day with no delays (that is, almost never) I spent 90 minutes on the train. Each morning, I would climb aboard and hope for a seat and then repeat the process coming home. Conservatively, that is something like 22,500 minutes, or 375 hours each year. Multiplying that by 17 years gives approximately 265 days spent on the trains. Almost 3/4 of a year. And yet, I never dream about the trains. I sometimes dream about the subways or the World Trade Center but I never dream about trains. Is that weird?

What brought this up was that I found an old train schedule and monthly ticket while going through a box of old junk. It reminded me of how little I think about the rail road.